Thrice Defied
by JenniGellerBing
Summary: ...Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... How did the Potters thrice defy Voldemort?  JPLE
1. Chapter 1

The first time Lily Evans and James Potter defied Lord Voldemort, they were very, very lucky.

It was one week before their seventh year at Hogwarts and they were both in Diagon Alley, getting new robes in Madame Malkin's. James had his shiny new Head Boy badge pinned to the robes he was wearing now, which were a few inches too short, and he marched into the fitting room of the robe shop with a grin on his face.

"Hallo, Lily," he said genially, jumping up onto the pedestal next to his future wife who, at the moment, hated his guts.

"Potter," Lily greeted tersely, her back turned to him as Madam Malkin measured her inseam.

"How was your summer?"

"Fine," Lily said, spinning around slowly so that she was facing him.

When she didn't ask about his, James went on, "Mine was great, as well - "

"Oh my God," Lily said suddenly, her jaw dropping. "Potter, tell me you're kidding. This is some sort of joke."

"What?"

"You took that from Remus, didn't you? Tell me that badge belongs to Remus and you've borrowed it to make me scared for my life," Lily said, paling.

"Oh, _this_ badge?" James said, looking down at his chest. "No, actually, it belongs to me. I'm Head Boy. Jealous?"

"Furious, more like," Lily said, shoving her hand into her own pocket and pulling out her own gleaming Head Girl badge.

"I knew it!" James shouted triumphantly, startling the poor man who was checking the measurements of his waist. "This is fantastic! We'll be working together all year."

"Don't remind me," Lily groaned. "Now I _know_ Dumbledore's gone off his rocker. You weren't even Prefect!"

"Guess I was the best man for the job," James said, feeling a twinge of guilt in the pit of his stomach. The truth was, Dumbledore had asked Remus at the end of their sixth year if he would like to be Head Boy, and Remus had declined the offer. He had mentioned to the headmaster that James would be a good candidate and, two months later, James had received his badge.

"I guess so," Lily said disbelievingly. "And I was _so_ looking forward to being Head Girl..."

"What? It hurts me, Lily, that you would say such a thing," James said, affronted. "This year is going to be great, you wait and see. We can maybe... er, plan a Christmas ball?"

"A... what?" Lily said.

"A Christmas Ball. Dunno, I just thought you girls liked that sort of thing," James said, shrugging. _Or rather, Remus told me that you've wanted to have a Christmas Ball since our fourth year but the Head Boy has never been willing._

"You want to have a Christmas Ball?" Lily said disbelievingly as James rotated on the pedestal so the magical measuring tape could measure his chest.

"Well, I do if you do," James said, glad he was facing away from Lily so she couldn't see his blush.

"All right," Lily said slowly. "Well... we'll see. You have to understand that I find it very odd that _you_ want to have a Christmas Ball."

But James suddenly wasn't listening; he was staring intently out the window and down the alley, where some sort of commotion had just erupted.

"What the..." he muttered, as screams filled the alley. People were suddenly running everywhere, spells were flying through doors and archways; James saw the window of Flourish and Blotts shatter across the street, and he jumped off the pedestal.

"Get down!" he shouted to Lily, who was standing frozen on her own pedestal. "Lily!"

He heard a spell whistle toward them and, without thinking, wrapped an arm around Lily's waist and pulled her to the floor. Glass sprayed over them and James closed his eyes, pressing Lily to the carpet with one arm and covering his head with the other. He felt shards of glass cut into his legs and his back and heard Lily cry out.

He lifted his head carefully to look out the broken window. Screams still filled his ears and he could see wizards in dark cloaks and masks running everywhere.

"Come on," he gasped. "This isn't safe, we've got to move."

"Who is it?" Lily said, horror-stricken. "What's going on?"

"It's the Death Eaters," James said. He didn't say that he also thought he had seen You-Know-Who himself in the crowd.

He pulled Lily up with one hand and dragged her through the shop to a back room, where Madame Malkin and her assistant were sheltering.

"That was lucky," James said as Lily slid to the floor. "If that spell had come a second earlier, we'd be dead."

Lily shuddered and touched a hand to the back of her leg, wincing.

"Are you hurt?" James asked, jumping down next to her; his own injuries were forgotten.

"Not bad," Lily said. "You?"

"I'll live," James said.

"Lucky," Lily said, shaking her head. "_Lucky_."

And she didn't even protest as James sat against the wall next to her and slipped his hand into hers.


	2. Chapter 2

A/n: Feedback would REALLY be appreciated. I'm feeling rather unsure about this fic at the moment, as I've just been told by another archiving site that "the characterizations are flat." Whether you agree or not, thanks for reading. Parts three and four will follow shortly.

II.

The second time Lily Evans and James Potter defied Lord Voldemort, they did it almost entirely by accident and it changed their lives forever.

It was the night of the Christmas Ball that they had planned together as Head Boy and Girl, and James had somehow convinced Lily to attend as his date. The ball had gone very well, but James had barely noticed; he had been far too busy staring at Lily, alight in green robes that matched her eyes, to notice much else.

This wonderment also led him to such distraction that he did not notice when Sirius slipped both firewhiskey and Little Lorien's Liquid Lust into the cups of pumpkin juice James was taking for Lily and himself to drink. 

Which would somehow explain how James and Lily were running along the passageway to Hogsmeade after midnight in search of more butterbeer and Chocolate Frogs for the after-party still raging in the Gryffindor common room. James' own propensity for rule-breaking had calmed down considerably since he had been named Head Boy, and Lily had rarely ever broken a school rule at all, making this event a definite rarity. Lily had let her hair down and it spilled down her shoulders as she giggled. James was entranced by it.

"You know, James," she gasped as he caught up to her. "This is so unbelievably not allowed."

"Is it?" he asked dazedly.

"I would never _dream_ of doing this," Lily said, grinning. "We're Head Girl and Boy, for Merlin's sake! We could get expelled."

"I've been doing this for years and I haven't been expelled yet," James assured her. "Now hush, we're getting to the trapdoor. It'll take us up into Honeydukes. I don't need to remind you to _be quiet_," he hissed as the passageway tapered off.

"No, of course not," Lily said as James squeezed into the narrowest part of the passage behind her. He caught a whiff of her hair, and decided it smelled like roses and cinnamon. He leaned in and breathed deeply.

"What are you doing?" she whispered.

"Smelling your hair," he blurted out. "Oh, shite, I mean - "

"No, I wanted you to," Lily muttered. "_Why_ did I want you to? This doesn't make any sense at all..."

"Can I kiss you?" James interrupted, feeling there was nothing better to be said.

"I guess so," Lily said, her cheeks turning pink. James, deciding he had entirely lucked out and better not wait another moment lest she change her mind, leaned in and kissed her. She snaked her hands into his hair and he pressed her up against the stone wall of the passage.

"Mmmmpff," she said, pulling away.

"Wha?"

"Butterbeer. They'll be waiting for the butterbeer."

"_Who_?"

"Everyone! Back at the Tower!" Lily said, gesticulating in the general direction of the castle, her words slightly slurred. "C'mon." She quietly pushed open the trap door and crept up into the cellar of the sweets shop.

"Oh, you've got to be joking," James said miserably, following her. They snuck up the stairs and through the front room out into the snowy, deserted street. The shock of wind cleared the fuzzy feeling in James' head to some degree; he wondered vaguely why they had agreed to do this at all.

"Bloody hell, it's freezing," Lily cried. "Why didn't we bring cloaks?"

"Dunno," James said. He glanced around; the street seemed suspiciously empty and dark, and the clearing in the forest where they stood seemed even darker. "Let's go to the Three Broomsticks and get - "

"_Petrificus Totalus_!"

"_Expelliarmus_!"

Simultaneously, James felt his wand fly from his hand and his body go completely rigid. He fell flat on his back in the snow and felt the wind knocked out of him.

"_Incarcerous_!" a cold voice shouted, and James heard Lily scream as she was bound by magical ropes.

_Stupid_, he thought through a haze of terror and whiskey. _We are so stupid._ They were surrounded now; there were at least two of them, possibly more, wands raised, and he and Lily were both wandless and, for the moment, unable to move. 

"Screwing around with a Mudblood, are we, Potter?" the high, cold voice mocked. "I always expected better of you, despite your vile Gryffindor habits. Your bloodline indicated you could become a great wizard."

James writhed, trying to break the bonds that held him motionless, but he couldn't move a muscle. The man who had cursed him loomed over him, a black mask covering his face. For a moment, he pulled the mask aside to stare down at James, who realized that the man holding him at wandpoint was none other than Lucius Malfoy. The Slytherin had been five years ahead of James, and in the years they were both at Hogwarts, James and the Gryffindor Quidditch team had reamed Slytherin at every match, leaving their Seeker, Malfoy, disgruntled - to say the least.

James tried to open his mouth, the words _rat bastard_ at the tip of his tongue, but nothing happened. Malfoy laughed and walked away, leaving James to stare up at the dark sky, snow drifting down to land on his face.

"I'm sure the Dark Lord will just _love_ to see you, Evans," Malfoy said coldly. "He hasn't had a Mudblood plaything for quite some time. Of course, maybe I'll have a go with you first, eh? How does that sound? And with your little boyfriend watching, too?"

James had to give Lily credit; she wasn't even whimpering. He, on the other hand, was screaming on the inside, concentrating every cell in his body on breaking the curse Malfoy had placed on him. He was finally able to wrench his jaw free and shouted, "Don't touch her, you arsehole! I'll kill you, I swear to Merlin I will, you bastard - "

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, watch your language, boy," came a cool, unbearably cruel voice from behind James.

"My Lord," Malfoy gasped, as he and his Death Eater cronies fell to their knees, and James' blood turned to ice. _My Lord_... Voldemort was _here_. James couldn't turn, but he could lift his head enough to see that Lily was frozen, her eyes wide and terrified. James wished he could say something to her to reassure her, but absolutely nothing came to mind.

"So you planned to 'have a go' with the Mudblood first, did you?" Voldemort asked Malfoy.

"No, my Lord, I was merely joking," Malfoy asked, quivering with terror. "She is all yours."

"Precisely. What do you say to a little pain, Mudblood? _Crucio_!"

"_Evanarasco_!" Albus Dumbledore boomed from the doorway of Honeydukes, a bolt of white light shooting from his wand and intercepting the Unforgivable before it reached Lily.

"Dumbledore," Voldemort breathed, and in that one word, James thought he could hear fear.

"Tom," Dumbledore said calmly, while James' eyes bogged out of his head. _Tom_? Who the hell was Dumbledore talking to, and why was he being so bloody cordial?

"Come to rescue these idiot children you keep up at the castle?" Voldemort said, lazily waving his wand in Lily's direction. "You know, it still disgusts me that you choose to educate these filthy Mudbloods."

"I have heard your views on that before," Dumbledore said, his eyes agleam as he, too, raised his wand.

"Indeed, but you have yet to listen," Voldemort said, his eyes following Dumbledore's wand anxiously.

"I will not hesitate to kill you, Tom, if you so much as lay one spell on her," Dumbledore said. Voldemort opened his mouth but Dumbledore beat him to it, flicking his wrist calmly and saying, "_Redacto_."

Voldemort flew backwards, landing face down in the snow. "_Stupefy_." Dumbledore shot at Malfoy, who keeled over on the spot. "_Accio wands_!" James and Lily's wands shot from Malfoy's robes and into Dumbledores outstretched arms. "_Finite incantatem_." James felt the spell break and stretched out his arm to catch his wand. Lily was similarly released from her magical bonds and ran to James' side.

"Did he hurt you?" James gasped, grabbing both her arms.

"No," Lily said as Dumbledore fired off another round of curses at Voldemort. Voldemort dodged them and sent another back at Dumbledore, who deflected it easily. The Death Eaters stood frozen, apparently frightened of Dumbledore. Looking furious, Voldemort waved his wand at Mafoy, who flew through the air toward him, and then they, along with the other Death Eaters, Disapparated with a _pop_.

"I want you both to into the Three Broomsticks and Floo to my office at once," Dumbledore said, finally addressing Lily and James. "The password is _candy floss_. Go, now!"

They didn't need to be told twice; they all but ran into the bar and jumped into the fire, and arrived, covered in ash but unharmed, in Dumbledore's office a few minutes later.

They sat down heavily in the squashy armchairs. When they regained their breath, Lily moaned, "Oh, my God. We're going to be expelled."

"_Expelled_?" James said. "Lily, we could've _died_."

"My badge is going to be taken away, they're going to snap my wand in half and I'll have to go live with Hagrid - "

"Hagrid?" James said, bewildered. "Lily, get a hold of yourself!" He reached out and grabbed her hand instinctively. "We're alive, okay?"

She shook her head as if to clear it. "All right. Yes. We're fine." She turned to James as if seeing him for the first time. "_What the bloody hell is wrong with you_?"

"With _me_?" James said, astonished. "You led _me_ down that passage, Evans, not the other way around!"

"Yeah, but you're the one who took me to it!" Lily screamed. "It's entirely your fault, and now I'm going to be expelled!"

"Now, now, Miss Evans, there is no need to lay the blame solely on Mr Potter," Dumbledore said, entering the office noiselessly from the Floo. They both whirled around, James feeling his face heat with shame.

"In fact, though you were both undoubtedly imprudent in your decision-making tonight, there is a third party who must also be held accountable for your untimely escapade outside of the castle," he continued.

"A third party?" Lily asked. "May I ask who, sir?"

"Sirius Black," Dumbledore said, coming to sit behind his desk.

"Sirius?" James gasped. "How?"

"He managed to intercept me in the hallway outside of my office," Dumbledore said. "He must have been somehow alerted to the fact you were here, perhaps because you did not return to Gryffindor Tower with whatever goods you were planning to acquire in Hogsmeade." Lily and James both blushed profusely.

"He immediately admitted to placing both firewhiskey and a certain lust potion into your drinks earlier this evening," Dumbledore said. "While separate, neither is particularly unsafe - illicit yes, but mostly harmless - together they make a potent mix that both lowers inhibition and lessens one's ability to use common sense. Which would, I'm sure, be the only reason our Head Boy and Girl would be out-of-bounds in the middle of the night."

"Yes, Professor," Lily assented quietly. James was too busy with thoughts of how he should best curse Sirius in the morning.

"Nevertheless, what happened tonight is not entirely excusable," Dumbledore said. "I shall be taking fifty points from Gryffindor and you will both serve detentions for a week."

"Yes, Professor," Lily said again, staring at her hands. James nodded.

"And now for another matter," Dumbledore said. "You had a very close brush with Voldemort tonight." Both James and Lily winced at the name. "I'm sure that has left you shaken, to say the least. And yet neither of you have lost your wits as I have seen older and wiser wizards do after coming face to face with the Dark Lord. That shows me that you are stronger than many. You did not lose your heads or beg for mercy, and that is a quality we look for."

"_We_, sir?" James questioned.

"I have been watching you both very closely for some time," Dumbledore continued. "You and several of your friends. I must say I am rather partial to Gryffindor students, but can you blame me? After tonight, I have become entirely convinced of what I before thought quite true, which is that you are two of the brightest and strongest students I have seen pass through this school."

James puffed up rather proudly; he could almost hear Lily rolling her eyes.

"I am sure you both know that I am tirelessly fighting Voldemort and his followers. I'm not sure if you know that I am not alone," Dumbledore said. "I have started a small and very secure group of trustworthy individuals who, like me, are entirely committed to the cause. It is called the Order of the Phoenix."

James and Lily were now staring at Dumbledore raptly. James wondered why Dumbledore was telling them this... unless...

"I would like to ask both of you to join the Order as soon as you leave Hogwarts," the Headmaster said. "I must warn you, it is not something to decide lightly. The Order is a secret association and if you join, you will not be permitted to mention a word of it to anyone, not even your closest friends. It is also dangerous. I cannot promise you that you will remain unharmed through this war, because that is what it has become - a war. Voldemort is becoming more active - and more daring - by the day. It is no coincidence that he showed up tonight in Hogsmeade. I believe he has been looking to capture a Hogwarts student for some time in order to gain more information about what is going on inside the castle. He was quite right to have a patrol in Hogsmeade, thinking some student would take advantage of the holiday to bend some rules." He smiled kindly at James, who smiled back sheepishly. "Now, then. I would like you both to think about what I've told you, but remember - do not breathe a word of it to anyone. Come back to me in a week with an answer."

"Er, Professor? Do you think maybe my friends could join, too? Sirius and Remus and, er, Peter? They're really trustworthy and brave," James said eagerly.

"Alice might like to join too, and Frank," Lily put in. "They're going to be Aurors, you know."

"Indeed," Dumbledore said, smiling. "We shall see. Now both of you go off to bed. It is quite late."

Lily and James rode down the stone staircase, not speaking until they had reached the bottom and the gargoyle had slid into place behind them.

"Well," Lily said. "Are you going to join?"

"Yes," James said immediately. 

"Really?"

"Do you honestly think I would pass this up? A chance to work for Dumbledore, fighting against that evil tosser? I'm all for it. What about you?"

"I think so," Lily said, thought with a bit more uncertainty. "I mean, I want to do everything I can, but he practically said we could _die_."

"So what? I'm ready to die for the cause," James said fiercely, marching off toward Gryffindor tower.

"Oh, don't be rash," Lily pleaded, and when James turned to look at her, he saw genuine fear in her eyes. "There's no need to be so bloody happy about the possibility of dying."

"I'm not _happy_," James said. "But this is the opportunity of a lifetime - it's something I need to do." Lily nodded. They walked in silence until they reached the Portrait hole.

"Listen," James said suddenly. "About that kiss earlier..."

"I was confused," Lily said quickly, avoiding James' eyes. "Lust potion and all that."

"Right," James said, trying not to show his disappointment. "Right, then."

"But," Lily sighed, "it was rather nice."

"Yeah?" James said.

"I think we could give it another go, you know, now that we're not drunk or anything," she said with a smirk. James grinned and leaned down to kiss her.

"Ahem," the Fat Lady said loudly, startling them apart. She shook her head. "_Honestly_... teenagers." 


End file.
